Sunset
by CrescentStrata
Summary: One-shot. A reason Kyo-kun fights Yuki so hard, and a reason to love Kazuma.


Note: This is a little something to tide you ToKyo fans over whilst I write the rest of "Summer Rains." As you know, the next chapter of SR is the last, and boy is it going to be a long one. I mean, we're talking about 2 or 3 times longer than any other chapter!  
So anyway, until it's finished, here's some fluff from awhile ago. I'm not too sure where the whole banquet thing came from, at the time I just kind of threw it in there randomly. -shrug-  
Kazuma rocks. -nod-  
  
"Sunset"_  
  
_I'm beginning to think that maybe I'll never beat that damn rat.  
Here I am again, up on the roof, holding ice to my abused jaw.  
_You're so pathetic,_ the throbbing pain seems to tell me, _why don't you just give up?_  
_Because,_ I snap back, continuing this odd imaginary conversation, _I can't let down Kazuma-sensei._  
  
Kazuma-sensei...  
The only one who bothered to take me in. The only one who took the time to take care of and train me. Everyone else just said he was a damn fool, trying to take care of the cat like that.  
_That child of the cat is hopeless, Kazuma, and you're no better if you take him in._  
But he didn't care.  
He didn't care what they said, he just ignored them all.  
  
With a sigh, I set the ice pack down. My jaw stil hurt, but the ice was making my hand numb, instead of my jaw like it was supposed to.  
Hearing the back door slam, I glanced over the edge of the roof to see Yuki stalking off to his "secret base" in the fading afternoon light.  
Glaring at his back before rolling my eyes, I leaned back. What did he have to be mad about anyway? He's the one who won the fight.  
Nothing's good enough for him.  
But whatever. Why am I worrying about him anyway?  
  
"Kyo-kun?"  
"What is it, Tohru?"  
"Are you alright?"  
"Yea. I'm fine," I told her, flinching as the pain in my jaw seemed to get stronger.  
Tohru took a seat beside me with a slight shake of her head.  
"Are you sure?" she asked me, picking up the ice and holding it to my jaw.  
"I'll be fine," I said, pushing her hand away, " really. So don't worry about me."  
"If you say so, Kyo-kun."  
I was trying to avoid looking at Tohru.  
Why?  
Because I knew she was sitting there, glancing at me with that "I pity you" expression.  
  
She dropped her hands into her lap, still holding the ice pack, and glanced in the direction of Yuki's personal sanctuary. She wanted to go after him, I could tell.  
And why not?  
She comes up here to make sure I'm alright and I just act all bitchy.  
  
I shouldn't be so mean to her, really. But I think that, somehow, I'm trying to keep her from getting to close to me. I'll probably only hurt her anyway, so I might as well try to keep my distance. Well, okay, so it's more like keep _her_ at a distance. Whatever.  
I mean sure, I know I'm hurting her now by doing this, but if I let her get close then...Hell, just leave me and my twisted, hypocritical logic alone, damnit.  
  
"You might as well go after him," I said suddenly, breaking the silence between us that was starting to grow heavy.  
"Look, Kyo-kun, the first star of the night," Tohru said, pointing up at the shining dot in the sky and dismissing what I'd just said.  
"Yea, what about it?" I asked, deciding to play along.  
"Mom always said...if you make a wish on the first star, it'll always come true. Someday, somehow, if you believe."  
  
She missed her mother so much. I couldn't even imagine. I didn't have anything I paticulary missed about _my_ mother. She'd always just hid me away from the world, trying to protect me.  
But really, she made me feel more like the stupid, weak cat that I am when she did. Like I had to be seperated because I couldn't take a few insults...  
And maybe I couldn't have, being so young. I wouldn't have understood why all these people hated me, what the big deal with being the cat child was.  
But you know...  
I still don't.  
  
That was why I didn't trust Kazuma-sensei at first. Yes, you heard me correctly. I didn't trust the man I look up to, admire, and all that.  
But he showed me that I could.  
He just kind of laughed the first time I pushed his hands away when he tried to pick me up. He knew I was used to everybody talking about me. He knew I couldn't trust him.  
Kazuma-sensei was paitient and proved that he, unlike a lot of other people, did actually care about me. That he favored _me_, instead of that stupid rat like everybody else.  
  
"Then...I wish..." I said quietly, starting to debate if I actually wanted to say it in front of Tohru or not. I'd get the pity look.  
"Kyo-kun?"  
"I wish...that everyone would just...What's so wrong with being the damn cat anyway?" I demanded, old memories resurfacing.  
Tohru just watched me, a look on her face that was a mix of curiosity and concern.  
"Do I really deserve to be mistreated because of some damn thing that happened way back when that I had aboslutely nothing to do with? Is it reason alone to practically disown me?"  
"Kyo-kun..." Tohru said, placing her hand gently on my arm, "You are lucky though. You don't have to follow the same rules as the others."  
"I don't want to be lucky!" I snapped, pulling my arm out of her gentle hold.  
"I want to be accepted! I'm so sick of it! Just because I'm the cat...what kind of a reason..."  
  
I took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm down and hold back tears from reopened old wounds at the same time.  
"And people who actually treat me kindly...they suffer as well...Just because they've befriended the cat. It's so...stupid..." I said weakly, afraid to talk any louder.  
"What happened, Kyo-kun?"  
"Well, you know...the cat isn't supposed to attend the New Year's banquet..."  
"Hai, I remember."  
"I was still little then...Kazuma-sensei was supposed to go...everyone but the cat goes...But he didn't. He didn't think it was fair, and he didn't think I should have to be by myself 'cause I was so young. So he stayed with me."  
"He must care about you a lot, Kyo-kun," Tohru said in that cheerful tone.  
"Yea...and I appreciate everything he's ever done for me...but sometimes I wish he hadn't."  
"Why?"  
"When he didn't show up, and everybody found out it was because he had 'taken pity on the idiot cat,' they told him he was being foolish. And it didn't stop there either. They would sneak around, talking about him when they thought he wasn't paying attention. They said he was just as hopless as the cat, that it was 'a shame such a respected family member would do such a thing.'"  
Tohru was waiting paitently while I paused to rearrange my thoughts, knowing I wasn't quite done yet.  
"But you know...he heard all of it, everything they said. And he just took it. He sacraficed a great deal of his honor for me. And what do I have to repay him with? I can't even put his training to good use and beat Yuki."  
  
I wanted to say something more, but I was sure if I started talking now, I'd just lose my hold on the tears.  
Tohru was saying something while rubbing my back gently to comfort me, the way a mother might comfort a child who has had a nightmare.  
But I only wish this was a dream.  
I didn't hear what she had said, I was too busy wondering why she was still here.  
  
"Kyo-kun...?"  
I shook my head slightly, to clear my thoughts somewhat.  
"Sorry?"  
"I said 'it'll be alright,'" Tohru informed me, with a soft smile, "because Kazuma-san will always be there for you. He doesn't care...He wouldn't feel as if you have to pay him back, Kyo-kun. He just wants to show how much he supports you. That you'll always have someone who cares."  
"I guess you're right...but..."  
"What, Kyo-kun?"  
"Why are _you_ still here? Why do you care?"  
"Well..." she said, glancing up ay the sky, which had darkened considerably since the last time she'd done so, "I guess it kind of goes beyond the fact I've always loved the cat of the zodiac, now that I've met him..."  
  
I'm still trying to get over the fact she actually said she loved the cat from the first time she said it, and now she's said it again.  
  
"Because now...he's my friend. And I'll always be there for my friends. To support and care for them. Even if no one else does."  
I was taken aback by this, and all I could manage was a "Tohru..."  
"So then, Kyo-kun, don't worry! Because I'll always love the cat, and I'll always listen if he has something he needs to say. And I'll always help him in any way I can..."  
There were tears in her eyes too...  
"And I won't ever abandon you, Kyo-kun..." she said, suddenly pulling me into a tight hug.  
  
So there, on the roof, sat a girl holding a cat. A cat that had been shown that, sometimes, it's possible that someone likes you for who you are.

**_Owari _**


End file.
